That Balochistan’s downward trajectory is a direct consequence of the
government’s forgotten priorities, the Pakistan Army’s role, and deliberate
miseducation, or lack thereof. What could have still earned the province
wealth and prosperity, the open-minded youth and nature’s bounty of
minerals and resources, has been hijacked by either the federal
government or the Army.
Regional and national dallies of Pakistan expose the Baloch genocide
every day. Resistance groups do not shy away from explicit descriptions of
the humiliation that Baloch have to face at the hands of the Army. Like
warlords, they practice extra-judicial killings and forcibly disappear youth
and any competition to their authority. For the rest of Pakistan, the Baloch
transgressions are only numbers.
According to regional news, in the last week, six individuals have been
forcibly disappeared by Pakistani forces. The “death squads” as they are
infamously known, operate incognito among the locals and through aerial
surveillance. Many of the recent victims are from families that already lost
members at the hands of these squads. It is particularly distressing that
one of these individuals from Kodsak, Liaqat Sakhi Dad’s family has
already endured tragedy at the hands of Pakistan-backed death squads in
2012; his father was brutally murdered. Liaqat’s isn’t an isolated story;
taking down families of educated, respected people is a pattern.
This relentless targeting of individuals and families is not only an affront to
basic human rights but also indicative of a deeply troubling escalation in
state-sponsored repression. There are no transparent investigations or
autopsy of dead bodies. Most of the time these bodies are not returned to
family members and are instead defaced and thrown into piles of mass
graves.
Last week Pakistani forces dumped three bodies at one such mass grave
in Balgathar (Balochistan), two of whom were identified as Nabi Bakhsh
Balochand and Adil Asa. Both were abducted by Pakistani forces on 22
August 2023 in Turbat city. Earlier the forces would attempt to at least hide
their cruelties but today they are clearly displaying their intentions to
exterminate the Baloch population. This courage for a large-scale “kill and
dump” policy in Balochistan comes from decades of normalizing abuse by
leaders of Pakistan.
So far election manifestos have not addressed this elephant in the room.
Exiled representatives of Baloch descent have been urging the
international community to uphold the principles of human rights and justice
and exert diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to stop these egregious
violations. Pakistan has managed to contain this issue by assassinating
personalities like Karima Baloch abroad and killing their entire bloodline in
Balochistan. The basic right of individuals to live without a constant threat is
incomprehensible to the government. International scrutiny and attention
are imperative to rectify this systematic abuse.
The Pakistani leadership has been making multiple rounds in Balochistan in the
days leading up to the elections. Per tradition, every candidate for the
Islamabad seat comes hands full of ‘solutions’ to Balochistan’s assortment
of problems. Every few years, there is a “dialogue” for peace, and
announcements are made for mega-developmental projects that are “on
par with Punjab”. Videos from these visits present no discourse on human
rights violations sponsored by the State and how these leaders are hoping
to tackle them.
It’s not new information that politics is a dirty business. So if the past is any
proof, these big promises will buried alongside the skeletons of unidentified
bodies in mass graves, and the government will dust its hands pretending
violations against Baloch never existed for the umpteenth time.
Independent leaders such as Sardar Akhtar Mengal of Balochistan National
Party tried their luck with both PTI and PDM, in hopes for the Baloch cause
to be taken seriously. But both times he was turned down. Law too is
powerless to bring any changes in the system. When friction with the army,
or their hired hands can welcome a trial in the military court for a
commoner, the system will continue unchallenged.
Balochistan is Pakistan’s cash cow reined indefinitely. But the sad reality of
the Balochistan conundrum is that it is still not viewed as a “real” problem in
the modern world.